PMR systems have been developed to meet the growing demand for improved magnetic disk drive data rate and capacity. Damascene processes may be used to build up structures for use in a PMR writer head, as opposed to methods which rely upon material removal to form such structures. As applied to the formation of PMR writing heads, the damascene process involves forming trapezoidal trenches in a material, and then depositing (e.g., electroplating) a magnetic pole material into the trenches to form write poles. The PMR writer pole is the trapezoidal formation of the magnetic material deposited in the trapezoidal trench etched in a surrounding material.
With the ever increasing need for higher recording areal densities (for example, almost 1 TB/in2), improved processes for manufacturing PMR writers with wrap around shields (WAS) continue to be developed. Writer pole tip physical geometry may be decreased to meet the required magnetic pole write width and track pitch for higher areal density writers (e.g. Firebird and Barbados class).
However, such a geometry reduction may produce a significant write field and reverse overwrite loss. To avoid this problem, PMR writers with non-conformal side gaps may be fabricated. Accordingly, improved processes for manufacturing PMR writer heads with non-conformal side gaps are needed.